The subject disclosure is generally directed to a technique for merging a preprint image with a current or primary image.
In some situations, print output media employed comprises pre-printed media that includes, for example, a company logo, letterhead, an image, or a pattern. Such pre-printed media is commonly made to order and can be expensive.
When pre-printed media is used for printing, this essentially overlays two printed images, i.e., the image on the pre-printed media and the image the customer is printing, on paper. Pre-printed media is usually expensive. Instead of using pre-printed media, the same effect can be achieved on plain paper. This is done using two steps. First, the user sends a digital document that would generate the contents of pre-printed media, to the printer. This print job is not printed directly, but is rendered and saved as a halftoned bitmap. Later when customers print documents, the saved bitmap will be merged with the current print jobs to simulate the effect of printing using pre-printed media. This way, a user can get the results of pre-printed media on normal paper, resulting in significant savings for the customer.
Achieving the effect of pre-printed media requires merging two images, the image with the contents of the pre-printed media and the image that the customer tries to print on the pre-print media. While the merging is easier from the algorithm perspective when the two images are continuous tone images, not all printers can handle it this way due to the rendering architecture and memory constraints. This invention handles the merging of the two images after they have been halftoned. To achieve acceptable image quality for the merged image, the two images should be halftoned in an interdependent way.